USNEWS accurate indicator - college readiness

[Anonymous]

I remember reading a criticism of US News' ranking racket in The Atlantic a while back. The gist of it is it's a baseless scam that is manipulated by often false self-reported data.

It’s probably a sign of my own cynicism that I believe this last point is the key to the ridiculous popularity of the U.S. News rankings and those put out by other organizations like Kaplan, Fiske, or the Princeton Review. Dupes fork over their hard-earned money for the rankings to see how their kid (and, thus, they themselves!) stack up against the kid down the street. Ha! Sweetie, did you see that Bowdoin is ranked 20 spots higher than Oberlin?! Ah, the smug satisfaction and inner glow that come from having bested the Joneses. No matter how ludicrous that “besting” is.

But surely there is something good to be said about the U.S. News rankings? Yes. For parents and prospective students who know almost nothing about America’s colleges and universities, the ranking provides a rough guide to the institutional landscape of American higher education. Using the U.S. News rankings for any more exacting purpose is about as good for you as eating potato chips and Gummy Bears for dinner. With maple syrup.

So, my best advice is simply to ignore the U.S. News rankings. If you want to find rankings of American colleges and universities that are far more nourishing and beneficial, look at the ones produced by The Washington Monthly.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/your-annual-reminder-to-ignore-the-em-us-news-world-report-em-college-rankings/279103/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember reading a criticism of US News' ranking racket in The Atlantic a while back. The gist of it is it's a baseless scam that is manipulated by often false self-reported data.

It’s probably a sign of my own cynicism that I believe this last point is the key to the ridiculous popularity of the U.S. News rankings and those put out by other organizations like Kaplan, Fiske, or the Princeton Review. Dupes fork over their hard-earned money for the rankings to see how their kid (and, thus, they themselves!) stack up against the kid down the street. Ha! Sweetie, did you see that Bowdoin is ranked 20 spots higher than Oberlin?! Ah, the smug satisfaction and inner glow that come from having bested the Joneses. No matter how ludicrous that “besting” is.

But surely there is something good to be said about the U.S. News rankings? Yes. For parents and prospective students who know almost nothing about America’s colleges and universities, the ranking provides a rough guide to the institutional landscape of American higher education. Using the U.S. News rankings for any more exacting purpose is about as good for you as eating potato chips and Gummy Bears for dinner. With maple syrup.

So, my best advice is simply to ignore the U.S. News rankings. If you want to find rankings of American colleges and universities that are far more nourishing and beneficial, look at the ones produced by The Washington Monthly.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/your-annual-reminder-to-ignore-the-em-us-news-world-report-em-college-rankings/279103/

But that article is from 2013 and they've completely revamped the methodology this year. So there may be criticisms of the rankings, but the Atlantic article is no longer accurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:US NEWS is lazy using AP/IB rates as "college readiness". It is, but graduating from high school = college readiness, heading to most colleges.

Graduating is definitely not an indicator for college readiness. Many kids need remedial work. Take a look at the ACT's college readiness statistic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember reading a criticism of US News' ranking racket in The Atlantic a while back. The gist of it is it's a baseless scam that is manipulated by often false self-reported data.

It’s probably a sign of my own cynicism that I believe this last point is the key to the ridiculous popularity of the U.S. News rankings and those put out by other organizations like Kaplan, Fiske, or the Princeton Review. Dupes fork over their hard-earned money for the rankings to see how their kid (and, thus, they themselves!) stack up against the kid down the street. Ha! Sweetie, did you see that Bowdoin is ranked 20 spots higher than Oberlin?! Ah, the smug satisfaction and inner glow that come from having bested the Joneses. No matter how ludicrous that “besting” is.

But surely there is something good to be said about the U.S. News rankings? Yes. For parents and prospective students who know almost nothing about America’s colleges and universities, the ranking provides a rough guide to the institutional landscape of American higher education. Using the U.S. News rankings for any more exacting purpose is about as good for you as eating potato chips and Gummy Bears for dinner. With maple syrup.

So, my best advice is simply to ignore the U.S. News rankings. If you want to find rankings of American colleges and universities that are far more nourishing and beneficial, look at the ones produced by The Washington Monthly.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/your-annual-reminder-to-ignore-the-em-us-news-world-report-em-college-rankings/279103/

But that article is from 2013 and they've completely revamped the methodology this year. So there may be criticisms of the rankings, but the Atlantic article is no longer accurate.

Their points still seem valid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Surprise Whitman is on top again! Poolesville seems like it is in the place it should be.

PHS is perfectly placed for where it should be.

Many kids in magnet courses will not take AP courses in their magnet curriculum, because magnet courses are better than AP. For example, very few SMCS kid will take the AP Computer Science Principles. More is expected of magnet kids than stacking up on APs. They will still end up with around 8-10 APs, but a whole lot more magnet courses.

But, thanks for playing.

[Anonymous]

AP and IB courses makes sense only if you are taking AP and IB exams and scoring a 4 or 5 in AP and a 6 or 7 in IB. Otherwise, it is grade inflation and college admissions officers know that.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps we should look at SAT and ACT scores only? Or PSAT scores?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember reading a criticism of US News' ranking racket in The Atlantic a while back. The gist of it is it's a baseless scam that is manipulated by often false self-reported data.

It’s probably a sign of my own cynicism that I believe this last point is the key to the ridiculous popularity of the U.S. News rankings and those put out by other organizations like Kaplan, Fiske, or the Princeton Review. Dupes fork over their hard-earned money for the rankings to see how their kid (and, thus, they themselves!) stack up against the kid down the street. Ha! Sweetie, did you see that Bowdoin is ranked 20 spots higher than Oberlin?! Ah, the smug satisfaction and inner glow that come from having bested the Joneses. No matter how ludicrous that “besting” is.

But surely there is something good to be said about the U.S. News rankings? Yes. For parents and prospective students who know almost nothing about America’s colleges and universities, the ranking provides a rough guide to the institutional landscape of American higher education. Using the U.S. News rankings for any more exacting purpose is about as good for you as eating potato chips and Gummy Bears for dinner. With maple syrup.

So, my best advice is simply to ignore the U.S. News rankings. If you want to find rankings of American colleges and universities that are far more nourishing and beneficial, look at the ones produced by The Washington Monthly.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/your-annual-reminder-to-ignore-the-em-us-news-world-report-em-college-rankings/279103/

But that article is from 2013 and they've completely revamped the methodology this year. So there may be criticisms of the rankings, but the Atlantic article is no longer accurate.

Their points still seem valid.

They're valid only if you didn't read the article and didn't notice that their criticism is of college rankings not high school rankings. For example, one of their main critique was that US News put a heavy weighting on "reputational scores" of colleges by peers. Reputational scores don't even exist for the high school rankings. There are valid criticisms of the US news high school ranking methodology, but this article is not a good source.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember reading a criticism of US News' ranking racket in The Atlantic a while back. The gist of it is it's a baseless scam that is manipulated by often false self-reported data.

It’s probably a sign of my own cynicism that I believe this last point is the key to the ridiculous popularity of the U.S. News rankings and those put out by other organizations like Kaplan, Fiske, or the Princeton Review. Dupes fork over their hard-earned money for the rankings to see how their kid (and, thus, they themselves!) stack up against the kid down the street. Ha! Sweetie, did you see that Bowdoin is ranked 20 spots higher than Oberlin?! Ah, the smug satisfaction and inner glow that come from having bested the Joneses. No matter how ludicrous that “besting” is.

But surely there is something good to be said about the U.S. News rankings? Yes. For parents and prospective students who know almost nothing about America’s colleges and universities, the ranking provides a rough guide to the institutional landscape of American higher education. Using the U.S. News rankings for any more exacting purpose is about as good for you as eating potato chips and Gummy Bears for dinner. With maple syrup.

So, my best advice is simply to ignore the U.S. News rankings. If you want to find rankings of American colleges and universities that are far more nourishing and beneficial, look at the ones produced by The Washington Monthly.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/your-annual-reminder-to-ignore-the-em-us-news-world-report-em-college-rankings/279103/

But that article is from 2013 and they've completely revamped the methodology this year. So there may be criticisms of the rankings, but the Atlantic article is no longer accurate.

Their points still seem valid.

They're valid only if you didn't read the article and didn't notice that their criticism is of college rankings not high school rankings. For example, one of their main critique was that US News put a heavy weighting on "reputational scores" of colleges by peers. Reputational scores don't even exist for the high school rankings. There are valid criticisms of the US news high school ranking methodology, but this article is not a good source.

It still seems on point. Flawed methodology, motivated by profit, self-reported data.

[Anonymous]

Bottom line - the best indicator of college readiness is college accapances which are published by Bethesda magazine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember reading a criticism of US News' ranking racket in The Atlantic a while back. The gist of it is it's a baseless scam that is manipulated by often false self-reported data.

It’s probably a sign of my own cynicism that I believe this last point is the key to the ridiculous popularity of the U.S. News rankings and those put out by other organizations like Kaplan, Fiske, or the Princeton Review. Dupes fork over their hard-earned money for the rankings to see how their kid (and, thus, they themselves!) stack up against the kid down the street. Ha! Sweetie, did you see that Bowdoin is ranked 20 spots higher than Oberlin?! Ah, the smug satisfaction and inner glow that come from having bested the Joneses. No matter how ludicrous that “besting” is.

But surely there is something good to be said about the U.S. News rankings? Yes. For parents and prospective students who know almost nothing about America’s colleges and universities, the ranking provides a rough guide to the institutional landscape of American higher education. Using the U.S. News rankings for any more exacting purpose is about as good for you as eating potato chips and Gummy Bears for dinner. With maple syrup.

So, my best advice is simply to ignore the U.S. News rankings. If you want to find rankings of American colleges and universities that are far more nourishing and beneficial, look at the ones produced by The Washington Monthly.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/your-annual-reminder-to-ignore-the-em-us-news-world-report-em-college-rankings/279103/

But that article is from 2013 and they've completely revamped the methodology this year. So there may be criticisms of the rankings, but the Atlantic article is no longer accurate.

Their points still seem valid.

They're valid only if you didn't read the article and didn't notice that their criticism is of college rankings not high school rankings. For example, one of their main critique was that US News put a heavy weighting on "reputational scores" of colleges by peers. Reputational scores don't even exist for the high school rankings. There are valid criticisms of the US news high school ranking methodology, but this article is not a good source.

It still seems on point. Flawed methodology, motivated by profit, self-reported data.

Um, no. Because the high school rankings are now using data from PARCC which are not self-reported. And the methodologies are completely different (high school vs. college). As for motivated by profit, I don't think that's a reason to discount the accuracy of a ranking, anymore than I think that the fact the NY Times is for profit makes it an inaccurate newspaper. But again, you should actually read the article.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember reading a criticism of US News' ranking racket in The Atlantic a while back. The gist of it is it's a baseless scam that is manipulated by often false self-reported data.

It’s probably a sign of my own cynicism that I believe this last point is the key to the ridiculous popularity of the U.S. News rankings and those put out by other organizations like Kaplan, Fiske, or the Princeton Review. Dupes fork over their hard-earned money for the rankings to see how their kid (and, thus, they themselves!) stack up against the kid down the street. Ha! Sweetie, did you see that Bowdoin is ranked 20 spots higher than Oberlin?! Ah, the smug satisfaction and inner glow that come from having bested the Joneses. No matter how ludicrous that “besting” is.

But surely there is something good to be said about the U.S. News rankings? Yes. For parents and prospective students who know almost nothing about America’s colleges and universities, the ranking provides a rough guide to the institutional landscape of American higher education. Using the U.S. News rankings for any more exacting purpose is about as good for you as eating potato chips and Gummy Bears for dinner. With maple syrup.

So, my best advice is simply to ignore the U.S. News rankings. If you want to find rankings of American colleges and universities that are far more nourishing and beneficial, look at the ones produced by The Washington Monthly.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/your-annual-reminder-to-ignore-the-em-us-news-world-report-em-college-rankings/279103/

But that article is from 2013 and they've completely revamped the methodology this year. So there may be criticisms of the rankings, but the Atlantic article is no longer accurate.

Their points still seem valid.

They're valid only if you didn't read the article and didn't notice that their criticism is of college rankings not high school rankings. For example, one of their main critique was that US News put a heavy weighting on "reputational scores" of colleges by peers. Reputational scores don't even exist for the high school rankings. There are valid criticisms of the US news high school ranking methodology, but this article is not a good source.

It still seems on point. Flawed methodology, motivated by profit, self-reported data.

Um, no. Because the high school rankings are now using data from PARCC which are not self-reported. And the methodologies are completely different (high school vs. college). As for motivated by profit, I don't think that's a reason to discount the accuracy of a ranking, anymore than I think that the fact the NY Times is for profit makes it an inaccurate newspaper. But again, you should actually read the article.

So you think using numbers from a test that is so bad they stopped using it has value? Seriously. PARCC is less helpful than what they did before. Even MCPS announced they won’t be using PARCC ever again because it’s a terrible measure.